Unexpected Gifts
by Aviv b
Summary: The team is forced to confront long held secrets. Secrets about themselves, their families, and Torchwood all collide after an encounter with the Faeries. Will these painful revelations help them to forge a closer bond or tear them irreparably apart?
1. Chapter 1

Unexpected Gifts

It was the first day back at work for the full team following Christmas.

The rift had given the team a wonderful present this year. For a full week prior to the holiday, nothing came through that needed more than a basic retrieval. And if Tosh's predictions were correct, they'd have another three days before anything potentially dangerous would arrive.

They sat around the Hub as Gwen regaled them with stories from her family Christmas celebration.

"You won't believe what Mother Williams got me this year," Gwen said laughing and shaking her head. Gwen opened the duffle bag she had on her lap and pulled out an enormous pair of knickers. The team howled with laughter.

"Those would probably be too big for Rhys," Tosh said choking on her coffee, "what on earth was she thinking?"

"Apparently since Rhys and I have been together for a couple of years, she thinks it's past time I produced an heir for the Williams clan." Seeing the confused looks on everyone's face, Gwen continued, "Yeah, they're maternity bloomers."

"Are you trying to tell us something, Gwen?" Jack asked looking a bit concerned.

Gwen winked at Ianto. "Yes I am. If my arse is going to get that big, I'm never getting pregnant."

The team laughed again.

Unfortunately, it was all a bit down hill from there. Owen had spent his time off "boozing and bird hunting" as he so nicely worded it. "And I'm only being polite due to the presence of the ladies," he said with a wicked smile on his face.

"Remind me to catch up with you later," Jack said with undisguised interest.

Tosh had been allowed a single call to her mother in Osaka. She seemed quite pleased with it but no one knew quite what to so say. "Oh that's nice," Gwen chirped trying to keep the mood up.

Jack had been on rift watch and dismissed the holiday with his usual aplomb. "You know in the 51st Century, we don't have celebrations anymore. It's just a party everyday. And before Owen says it, I'll skip the details and save him the upset stomach."

The group laughed nervously. Only Ianto was left to speak. "Spent time cleaning my flat, I've hardly had any time to set up my new apartment." He was staring at his coffee mug and didn't look at any of them.

The rest of the team was silent. Ianto had been back for several months since his suspension, but with one thing and another, including their run-in with cannibals, Ianto had only found a new apartment a few weeks prior. And while the team had forgiven him for the most part, there was still an awkwardness to everyone's interactions with him.

When he finally did make eye contact with the others he saw the concern on everyone's face. It hadn't been his intention to make everyone feel badly so he quickly moved to lighten the mood.

"Oh, and remind me never to go to the IKEA store the week before or after Christmas. I'd rather deal with a pack of weevils then shoppers desperate to get their last gift or the first sale item. I have a huge bruise on my arm from a little blue haired lady smacking me with her handbag. She apparently took exception to my taking the last set of sale towels."

"So who got the towel set?" Jack asked.

"Well I did of course. Had to threaten her with my weevil spray, but at least I came away victorious." Everyone smiled and Ianto stood saying, "Well that was fun, if you need me I'll be down in the archives sorting through a box of odd artifacts."

"Anything interesting," Tosh asked hopefully.

"Just one small item. Metal, and if you press one end the other end opens with some sharp prongs and tiny blades. Can't decide if it's an olive pitter or a nose hair clipper or both. Such is the life of the archivist," he said smiling.

Tosh and Owen breathed a silent sigh of relief. From prior experience, they knew they had dodged the proverbial 'don't ask Ianto about family' bullet.

Unfortunately, Gwen hadn't received the memo. "But Ianto, don't you have family to spend Christmas with?" she asked as he began to walk away.

Owen and Tosh winced. Ianto turned back and stared at her.

"Haven't spoken to my sister in years. Doesn't approve of having queers in the family. Oh, and before you ask, my father drank himself to death and my mother died in a psychiatric institution. Happy Christmas, Gwen," he said as he turned and walked to the stairs leading down to the archives.

"Shite," Owen grumbled.

Gwen looked mortified. "I didn't know. Did you know?" she asked looking frantically from one teammate to the other.

Jack shook his head. "Gwen, even I didn't know all of it. I knew he had a sister and that his parent's were dead, but did anyone else know about his mother?"

Tosh nodded. "He told me about her while he was on suspension. Said she was always a bit flighty, but he remembers her telling him increasingly strange stories about being visited by spirits and monsters and fairies. It got to the point where she started hearing voices and the family began to fear for her safety. And theirs, I'm sure. He doesn't remember much more but that they visited her once or twice in some type of hospital. And then he was told that his mother had died."

Owen couldn't believe what he was hearing. "It would have been nice if you had shared that with us, Tosh. You'd think as his physician he would have told me, but all I know is what his records from Torchwood One said. Parents deceased and one sibling. What the hell were you thinking?"

"That it was none of your business. He confided in me as his friend. Why would he tell you Owen, when all you do is snipe at him? If he doesn't trust you, that's your fault," Tosh added as she got up angrily and headed over to her desk.

"Gwen didn't know, so don't blame her, and Jack," she said looking back at him through narrowed eyes, "didn't care enough to see anything beyond the great cup of coffee and the attractive backside in a suit."

Owen and Jack both looked like they'd been slapped. "That's us told," Owen said as he rose to go to the medical bay. Jack sat holding his face in his hands.

"I'm sorry…" Gwen repeated in a whisper.

"Just leave it, Gwen," Jack said getting up and heading to his office. Gwen stared at the enormous knickers bunched between her fingers. As she headed back over to her work station, she threw them in the small bin next to her desk. _"Bah humbug,"_ she thought.

No one was surprised when Ianto declined to join the others that day for lunch, but by the following day everyone behaved as if nothing had happened. Ianto and Tosh seemed to have forgotten about the conversation, Jack and Owen were more than happy to move on and only Gwen was left feeling badly with a knot in her stomach and an ache in her heart. She tried to bring the subject up with Tosh, and then Owen and finally Jack but they all told her to let it be. Tosh explained that 'ignoring things is how we survive,' but it didn't seem right somehow.

***

Just as predicted, the rift became more active as New Year's Eve approached, so the team prepared for possible mayhem in Cardiff during the celebration. All time-off was cancelled though Gwen was granted permission to take a week off beginning on January 2nd. This caused no end to grumbling, especially by Owen who saw New Year's Eve as a prime opportunity for debauchery going to waste.

As the evening started, the anxious team spread out across the city in an attempt to neutralize any alien threat. The police were out as well, but they were focused primarily on alcohol related offenses; from petty fights to drink driving to serious assaults.

Tosh and Jack were celebrating New Year's in style at the St. David's Hotel. Jack looked handsome in a black tuxedo with grosgrain lapels, white shirt and a matching black tie offset by a silver satin waistcoat. Tosh wore a sapphire blue strapless cocktail dress with a beaded top and a full sheer taffeta skirt that hit just above her knees. Jack had surprised her with matching Max Kibardin heels that she had to practice walking in.

"If any weevils show up," she told him as they danced slowly to the Big Band orchestra, "I'll brain them with my shoes. I can't run in them, but no way am I leaving them behind."

"And here I thought all these lovely ladies were drooling over me, but you're right, those shoes are attracting a lot of attention."

As they continued to dance, Jack drew Tosh in closer, thinking about New Year's celebrations gone by. He sighed as he thought about his only New Year's with Estelle. The horrible dinner at that cheap supper club, and her in an ill-fitting dress she had borrowed from her sister; she was radiant, and they had been so much in love. He checked up on her welfare from time to time, but he had wisely 'disappeared' during the war.

She was elderly now he thought sadly, and here he was dancing with another beautiful young woman as if not a day had gone by. That was why, he reminded himself, he couldn't get involved with Ianto. Even if Ianto survived past thirty, he knew that eventually they would break apart as one of them aged and the other stayed the same forever. He glanced at his watch. Ten o'clock, all was quiet, but the night was young.

Owen and Ianto were hanging out at The Bionic Party at the Code Nightclub but as it was only a quarter after ten, it was very quiet there as well. Owen was dressed in slacks and a sweater while Ianto was still in a suit, albeit with a clean dark red shirt open at the neck. "Oi, bachelors hanging out together on New Year's Eve, we're pathetic."

Ianto laughed. "Speak for yourself. In about an hour this place will be filled with lovely ladies all looking for a nice man to go home with. If you play your cards right you might just be able to do your job and have some fun. I certainly intend to."

"You?" Owen retorted. "I would have thought that WOW would have been more your speed."

"Not necessarily, Owen. I can just as easily pick up someone here as you. In fact, I'll put money on it. Twenty quid to whoever gets hit up first." They both stayed sober until it was almost midnight and then drank and danced just enough with a group of women so as to not look out of place. By one thirty in the morning, it looked like there would be no alien appearances at the club. They got the okay from Jack to call it a night, so they both began to troll the crowd with more interest.

Owen lost the bet when Ianto headed home with a long-legged brunette less than an hour later. "Good luck, mate," Ianto whispered to him. "Mandy and me here are going home to party some more." Mandy was almost as tall as Ianto, and Owen ached as he pictured her long legs wrapped around him. Time to get busy.

Even Rhys had been enlisted to help. He thought Gwen worked for some type of government anti-terrorism group and it was easy enough to gain his assistance with crowd watching on New Year's Eve. They were at the Civic Center for the traditional Welsh Calennig. Gwen snorted. The Utter Madness tribute concert was not her idea of traditional, but Jack had paid for a nice dinner beforehand and a suite at the Radisson Hotel for after, so she kept one eye on the crowd and the other on Rhys as he sang loudly (and a bit drunkenly) the words to 'One Step Beyond'. They watched the fireworks at midnight and Gwen was shocked when Rhys got down on one knee and proposed to her.

They hung around until almost two when the buses stopped running. The crowd had thinned out considerably as they headed over to the hotel to continue to their own celebration.

Back at St. David's, Tosh's feet were killing her. She loved the shoes, but they were not made for standing, let alone dancing. So she and Jack had sat at their table for the last hour as Jack told her about his New Year's with Estelle, carefully altering the dates so that it seemed like it happened only a few years prior.

Finally, just after two in the morning when neither one could stay awake, Jack walked Tosh back to her room. As they passed the lobby, they heard some laughing and then some shouting. Then they heard a scream.

Jack took off running while Tosh kicked off her shoes, tucked them under her arms and ran after him.

A weevil in a party hat was snarling at two men just outside the front door. Apparently he had taken the hat and a noise maker from one of the men who in their very drunken state thought that the weevil was a costumed celebrant.

"Give me that hat back," one of them shouted as he tried to grab the weevil. His friend held him back and tried to calm him.

"Oi, he looks big and we don't want any trouble," he wisely observed as the weevil growled at them.

Jack pulled his Webley out and yelled for everyone to move back. The horrified crowd watched as Jack shot the weevil and then dragged the two intoxicated men into the lobby.

"Special Ops," Jack told the crowd. "No one leaves the lobby until they are questioned." There was some grumbling, but as Jack still had his gun out and there was a dead 'man' in front of the hotel, no one was going to put up too much of an argument.

In the meantime Tosh had called both Owen and Ianto who were on their way. She had reached Ianto first and it was clear from the giggles in the background that he wasn't alone.

As he dressed, his date was very put out.

"What do you mean you're leaving? I'm tired and I'm not going anywhere."

Ianto didn't have time to argue so he just continued dressing. "Fine, I don't know when I'll be back but I doubt it will be before evening. Feel free to use the shower and have some breakfast, but please be gone by the time I get back."

Mandy was ready to start a fight, but when she saw him take the TM Hi-Capa out of a drawer and holster it she went silent.

"Hell, what are you, some kind of spy? Or a copper, you're a bloody copper, aren't you?"

"Yeah, something like that. Don't worry, you're not in any trouble, even coppers are allowed to spend time with beautiful women." He kissed her on the forehead. "Leave your number, I'll call you."

Once Ianto was gone, Mandy couldn't get out of the flat fast enough. "Bloody cozzer, how did I end up here?"

Owen had just arrived home with a woman and while he was very unhappy with the interruption, he was able to cover it more gracefully.

"That was the hospital," he said as he tucked his mobile away in his pocket. "There's been a serious accident and I'm on call."

"You're pissed, you can't go in like that."

"Yeah, well I sober up fast. Can I drop you anywhere?"

His date had no choice but to let him drive her to a taxi stand and see her get safely into the cab.

"Sorry," he told her as he handed the driver a twenty pound note.

"Call me," she yelled from the cab window as Owen got back in his car.

"Yeah, I would, but I don't even know your name," Owen thought glumly as he drove toward the St. David's hotel.

Clean up took a good part of the next day. They had to remove the weevil, retcon all the guests and staff and plant a plausible story for the press about a suspected terrorist attempting to escape arrest.

Dinner on New Year's Day was cold pizza at the Hub. Everyone but Gwen sat silently at the boardroom table in a state of total exhaustion. Jack finally spoke.

"Well we almost had a nice New Year's for once. Oh, I almost forgot, Gwen got engaged last night." Three sets of bleary eyes looked across the table at Jack

"You're kidding," Tosh replied.

"Nope. Gwen thought she and Rhys were taking a week to spend together in London, and they will, but first they are going to see both sets of parents to give them the good news," Jack said chuckling. "She didn't seem all that enthusiastic about it for some reason."

Owen started laughing which set off everyone else. "Oi, she hit the jackpot with that one. Instead of a nice romantic week together, they're off to see Mrs. Williams of the giant bloomers. I thought I had a bad night; poor Gwen, she's probably kicking herself for saying 'yes.'"

"Well I had a very nice evening," Jack said winking at Tosh. "I danced with a beautiful woman which I haven't done in some years."

"And I'm sure you behaved like a perfect gentlemen which must have also made a change of pace for you." Ianto teased. "I met a woman named Bambi or Candy or something. She was lovely. But she didn't like my gun."

"I'm sure it's not the first time a woman has told you that," Owen snarked. "I actually met someone nice, but now I can't remember her name."

"Owen, that's pathetic," Tosh said laughing.

"I'm betting her name was Janet," Ianto said, "which is why we had to deal with her angry date later in the evening."

"Well, I got shoes," Tosh said holding up her pair of Kibardins.

"Those could be dangerous," Owen said eyeing them suspiciously. "Can you actually walk in those?"

"Not really, but I can't wait to tell Gwen what Jack bought me when she shows me her ring," Tosh said smirking. "She'll be so jealous."

"Let's see, designer shoes or Rhys," Owen paused for just a moment. "Yeah, you're right, you got the better deal."

"I'm not so sure, at least Rhys can cook," Ianto teased.

"Now children," Jack said interrupting, "the rift looks quiet for the next twenty four hours, so go home, get some sleep, and be back here tomorrow at nine. And let's all be grateful that we aren't the ones on the way to visit Mrs. Williams."

On that point, they were all in agreement.


	2. Chapter 2

The plot thickens! Your comments are appreciated!

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><p>Gwen sat in the passenger seat of the car and sulked. Rhys had promised that the trips to his parent's house and hers wouldn't take more than a day and then they'd have six days to themselves in London. The ring was lovely, but for heavens sake she didn't want to spend even one day visiting relatives they had just seen at Christmas. Rhys, however, was not to be deterred. So she gritted her teeth and hoped for the best.<p>

The visit with Rhys' parents was remarkably drama free. From the way his mother reacted (and as she reflected on the gift she had received the week before) Gwen was certain that Rhys had already let her know that he was planning on proposing.

Her own parents were more subdued. This surprised Gwen as not a month went by without either her father or mother asking when she and Rhys were going to 'make things legal.' When her father invited Rhys into the lounge to make some celebratory drinks, Gwen confronted her mother in the kitchen.

"I thought you'd be thrilled I'm getting married. You and Tad have asked me about a hundred times when we were going to. And now all you are saying is, 'oh that's nice, let us know the date.' I don't believe you two. You haven't even said anything about my ring," Gwen said holding up her hand for inspection.

It really was a lovely ring, maybe not as big as her cousin Bethan's, but a perfectly respectable just shy of a half caret diamond. That was one good thing about Torchwood; she was so busy that they didn't spend much money on going out as couple so they had been able to save up quite a bit toward the wedding.

Her mother forced a smile on her face and held Gwen's hand. "It is a beautiful ring, and we are happy for you, it' just…"

At that moment Rhys and Gwen's father came back into the kitchen and handed Gwen and her mother a drink.

"What? Something's wrong, someone's sick, I can tell by the look on your faces," Gwen said as she glanced frantically between them.

"No, it's nothing like that," her father said taking the kitchen chair next to her and motioning Rhys to the vacant seat between Gwen and her mother.

Her mother took a deep breath. "We should have told you sooner, but first we thought you were too young, and then it didn't seem important, and now, it seems like we should have told you ages ago."

Gwen was growing more frantic by the minute. She couldn't imagine what was going on. Rhys could see that she was going to come completely unglued if her parents didn't get to the point. Diplomatically he said, "We're a family and we'll deal with whatever you have to tell us together."

Mrs. Cooper smiled and squeezed Rhys' hand. "Thank you. You really are a good man. I almost got cold feet because I was as afraid of your reaction as hers."

This had obviously been a source of friction between Gwen's parents for suddenly, her father blurted out, "For goodness sakes, Mary just tell them. It's really not that big a deal."

"Well it is to me," Mrs. Cooper said tearfully. "We should have told you long ago but we're not exactly who you think we are. We're not exactly your real Mam and Tad."

Gwen was shocked. This had to be a joke. "What do you mean? I look just like Tad. I look like Tad's mother, I've seen the pictures."

Rhys watched the color drain out of Gwen's face and felt anger building up in him.

"Mother Cooper, with all respect, will you just tell us what's going on. Your daughter, my future wife, looks like she's going to faint." It came out a bit more gruffly than he intended but his tone served to focus Mary on Gwen's welfare rather than on her own embarrassment.

"Your Tad is actually your Uncle. His sister had a baby when she was very young. She couldn't raise you on her own so we adopted you."

"Wait," Gwen said holding up her hand, "Are you telling me that Aunt Lenora is my mother?"

"Lenora is my older sister, but I actually had a younger sister, Joanna," Geraint Cooper replied. She got pregnant when she was fourteen. Your Mam and I had been married several years when this happened. She came to live with us and when you were born the plan was for her to stay here and for all of us to raise you together."

"Joanna just couldn't cope with the situation," Gwen's mother continued. "She'd get angry that I was taking care of you, but when we'd ask her to help she was unable to accomplish the simplest task. She wouldn't remember to test a bottle before giving it to you; she gave you one so hot it blistered your mouth."

Gwen's father shook his head sadly. "She always was a dreamer. She had imaginary friends as a child, not so unusual, you had them as well. But she never gave them up. She would blame them for her mistakes; they were distracting her or telling her to do things or I don't know what."

"She and I had a huge row one day. It had been building up all week. Every morning she'd say she didn't feel well. Too sick to help with the laundry, or the shopping or the cleaning, but by afternoon she'd suddenly feel much better, right when a few girls from the street would be heading into town."

Mrs. Cooper sniffed. "It was just before your first birthday. Sick or not, I left you in her care for a few hours so I could get some shopping done for a little party we were going to have. My parents had seen you, but your Tad's parents hadn't. They were always afraid that people from their village would find out."

"Anyway, I came back from shopping and you were screaming and Joanna no where to be found. You'd messed your nappy and she hadn't changed you. She left you like that; it had to have been for at least an hour. After I changed you and got you calmed down, I looked for her and found her in the garden dancing. And when I scolded her for ignoring you, she said it didn't matter that she was going away with her friends and she'd never come back."

"Two days later, she was gone." Geraint continued. "We couldn't find a trace of her. She didn't go back to Swansea and there wasn't a way to really look for her. Today things are different, but back then she could have gone to London or some such place and it might as well have been the moon. We put out inquiries, and recently we actually looked on the Internet but we couldn't find anyone named Joanna Cooper that would have fit her description. If my folks ever heard from her, they never told us."

Gwen's mother began to cry. "We should have told you, but we were afraid you wouldn't understand or you'd want to look for her, and maybe we were selfish, but Joanna was so strange and we didn't know if she'd take you away or turn you against us, or what might happen."

Gwen looked at her parents. Her father looked like he had aged just sitting at the table. And her mother, well her aunt, no her Mam, she thought resolutely, was absolutely distraught. For the first time in her very much doted on life, she realized what keeping this secret had cost her parents. And how much they had loved her and wanted to protect her.

"So you're saying that you are not my biological parents but my aunt and uncle."

Her parent's nodded.

"You're wrong," she told them. "You _are_ my parents, my only parents and I would never give you up for anyone else. Wherever Joanna is, if she's even alive, it has nothing to do with me. I can't believe you were worried about telling me. Though it does maybe explain why I never had any brothers or sisters."

"Never could manage to have one of our own…"

"I am your own," Gwen declared.

"You know what I mean," her mother said. "I was so afraid I'd find you dancing in the garden or talking to yourself that I have to admit I was relieved when Joanna disappeared. I always meant to tell you, and I didn't want you to start your new life with Rhys without you knowing."

"Well Rhys," Mr. Cooper said as he got up to freshen his drink, "still want to marry my daughter?"

Rhys didn't miss a beat. "I'm glad you told Gwen. You know everyone has something in their family that's embarrassing," he continued. "Gwen's got a co-worker who has had a tragic family life."

"You mean Ianto, yeah?" Gwen asked. "You won't believe it but his father was an alcoholic who drank himself to death, and then his mother went mad, or was it the mother went mad first… Anyway, he lost his parents when he was a pre-teen and then was raised by his older sister but now they don't speak because he's, well, he's gay sort of."

"No you mean he turned gay after his girlfriend was killed in that terrorist attack at Canary Wharf a few years back," Rhys interjected.

"I don't think you can turn gay, can you? And he took a girl home with him at New Year's didn't he?" Gwen replied.

Gwen's mother cleared her throat. "I think we should stop right here. It sounds like the poor man's had a very traumatic life. And this was the type of gossip that we were afraid of for all these years."

Rhys nodded. "You're right. It's human nature to gossip, but not the best part of us."

"I'm ready for another drink," Gwen said to change the subject.

"You'll get no argument from me on that suggestion," Mary Cooper said holding up her glass.

Rhys was a bit surprised that Gwen didn't mention the startling revelation her mother made during the rest of their trip. He only raised the issue once as they got ready for bed after a chilly night out at the London Eye. "Think your, uh, birth mother's alive?" he asked as they snuggled under the covers.

"I have no idea whether my Aunt Joanna is alive or dead. And for once, I'm going to leave things alone. What if she is alive? She ran off and left me. What if she's dead? How would my father feel if something awful happened to her? Promise me Rhys, that you'll never say anything to my friends and especially not your Mam."

Rhys almost laughed at Gwen's concern but the look on her face brought him up short. "You promise me Rhys Williams or you'll regret it," she said as she put her ice cold feet on him.

"Oi, what is this, some type of special ops torture technique."

"Promise me," she insisted.

"Okay, I promise. Now get your feet off of me."

"I was sort of hoping you might help me warm up," she said smiling.

"Now that's more like it," Rhys said embracing Gwen and kissing her breathless.


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you for all the comments! More secrets ahead!

* * *

><p>Spring came to Cardiff and with it came changes for the team. Gwen spent most of her free time working on her wedding plans and Owen was certain that Jack and Ianto had something going on between them. Not a relationship, more like friends with benefits. Fine by him; if it kept Ianto from bringing any more threats into the Hub and kept Jack from being disagreeable, they could shag like bunnies for all Owen cared. Some things didn't change. Owen still spent most of his evenings out on the pull and Tosh was completely immersed in working on her rift predictions.<p>

Then Ianto spotted some funny weather patterns and when Jack awoke from his dream about the dead soldiers and rose petals, he knew immediately what it meant. Faeries!

Not long after, he learned that his former lover Estelle was lecturing on the creatures. He dragged Tosh away from her computer programs to go with him to the lecture.

"A lecture on faeries?" Tosh repeated dubiously. "Like Tinkerbell?"

"Not at all like Tinkerbell," Jack replied. "They're mischievous at the best of times, dangerous, even deadly when they feel threatened or don't get what they want."

After the lecture, Tosh wanted to get a closer look at Estelle's photographs. Jack smiled and told her he could arrange for that. Tosh was caught by surprise when Jack introduced Estelle as an 'almost relative.'

The handsome older woman laughed. "You really do take after your grandfather. It's a shame you didn't get to know him. He was so suave and sophisticated. But he was lost in the final days of that tragic war. "

If Tosh was confused by this, she was stupefied when back at Estelle's house; Estelle began to reminisce about Jack's grandfather. They'd looked at Estelle's pictures and listened politely to Estelle's beliefs that the faeries were benign creatures. Jack tried to discourage this view, telling her that they were dangerous and she could get hurt. She'd laughed and offered them some drinks, which they had politely declined. She'd had two martinis when she began to speak of more personal things.

"I was thinking about him the other night. We only had one New Year's Eve together. It was awful. Horrible supper club, I didn't have a nice dress, so I borrowed this hideous frock from my sister. It was two sizes too big and a very unflattering color, and my shoes didn't match it at all, but your grandfather, bless him, made me feel like I was the most beautiful and special woman in the world."

She sighed and showed them a picture she had on a sofa table. "You look so much like him, whenever I see you, it takes me a moment to realize that it's not him at after all," she said handing the picture to Jack and Tosh.

The picture was of Estelle and a man looking exactly like Jack. Across the bottom of the photo, 'December 31, 1943' was inscribed. Toshiko realized that it was probably taken on the New Year's Eve Estelle had spoken about. Estelle confirmed this laughing. "Yes, they had a photographer there and Jack insisted that we have our picture taken. I didn't want to, I knew I looked a fright but Jack said that we should have a memory of our first New Year's together. His words turned out to be prophetic. He was drafted within months into a highly classified intelligence position. I'd get an occasional cryptic letter and then they stopped. It was only after the war that I learned that he had been captured in Italy and executed as a spy."

"It's the only photograph I have of him. To think you found his diary, read about me and tracked me down so many years later. And then taking the time to check up on your grandfather's former lover; it never ceases to amaze me."

Jack barely had the car in gear for the drive back to the Hub before Tosh was peppering him with questions. "Who was that man in the photograph? That can't be you can it? But that story she told was almost identical to the story you told me. How could your grandfather be here during World War II if you are American?"

Jack just smiled and shrugged. "We Harknesses get around a lot." Tosh had many more questions to ask but when saw the look of pain and sadness on Jack's face, she decided against it.

Sadly, Jack was right about the faeries. Estelle ended up dead and the team ended up bargaining for the life of a little girl named Jasmine.

"You can't just give her to them," Gwen whispered in horror to Jack.

"They'll destroy the world Gwen, if we don't. What would you have me do?" he said as they confronted the faeries in the forest.

To the faeries, Jack bluffed, "You can't have her, ask for something else."

"What have you to offer us? Another to take her place?"

"I offer myself," Jack stated calmly.

"We have no use for a man not of this world, but you bring others that might do." The faerie looked at the Torchwood team and laughed.

"Two of you have the blood of a Chosen in your veins. Would one of you take her place?" the faerie said indicating Jasmine.

The team looked at each other in confusion. Ianto stepped forward. "I will go."

The faeries buzzed about this offer. One faerie came close to Ianto and searched his face. "Very pretty and brave. But unsuitable. We almost never take a man child. And you are too old and too corrupted by the world. I see great horror in your eyes. Metal and fire," she paused as she felt excruciating emotions move through her, "and the violent loss of many dear to you. One particularly close and violent death whose pain cannot be removed. Unsuitable, step back."

Ianto moved back.

"Will the other not step forward?" When no one moved the faerie pointed her finger at Gwen. "What about you, child? Do you not know about the Chosen blood you carry?"

Gwen was so frightened she couldn't move. She shook her head 'no' violently.

"Come here," the faerie growled and Gwen felt herself propelled forward. The faerie was so close Gwen could feel her rancid breath on her face. She was examined in complete silence. Finally the faerie spoke.

"Woman child. You are older than we would like, and while you are not an innocent, you have not been exposed to much of the evil this world has to offer. You are a lesser choice but since you would be paying the debt owed by your mother, we would find this substitution acceptable."

She turned to Jack. "Do you give me this woman as a substitute for the child?"

"I cannot," Jack replied. "Her life is her own, and it is her choice. If you take her unwillingly, she will be of no use to you. We both know that."

The faerie hissed in frustration. How she hated this not-of-this-world-man. She would have taken the dark haired woman without her consent for spite as well as the girl if only to defeat this unnatural man standing before her. Now she could not.

She held her hand out to Gwen. "Come with us child. You will live forever with us. Immortality, that is what is given to a Chosen." Gwen was crying. She didn't want to go, but a little girl would perish if she didn't. Before Gwen could speak, Ianto interrupted.

"That's a lie," Ianto spit out. "If she was a child it might be true. But even then it doesn't always work, does it? And when it doesn't, you return them broken to their kin. That's what will surely happen to Gwen if she goes with you. She's not a child and she's not a true Chosen, but you would drive her mad in order to preserve your pride."

The faeries laughed. "A shame, if we had found you sooner, we would have taken you man-child." She looked at Gwen. "Then we'll have to take the child won't we." When she saw Gwen hesitate, the faerie continued, "Do you object? Do you offer yourself in her place?"

Gwen couldn't look at the hideous creature before her. She shook her head.

"Speak child," the faerie shrieked. "Speak so all may hear and all may know your choice."

"No," Gwen said in a whisper. She looked up and made eye contact with the faerie. "No," she said louder, "I'll not go with you," she said and then lowered her eyes to hide her shame.

The woods echoed with laughter, and when Gwen looked up the faeries and the child Jasmine had disappeared.

The team walked back to the SUV each in their own thoughts. Between the story from Estelle and this afternoon's confrontation with the faeries, Tosh's brain was roiling in confusion; everything she knew about Jack, Ianto and Gwen had been turned upside down. She looked over and saw the bewildered look on Owen's face. _"Well at least he's feeling the same as I am,"_ she thought.

Gwen was still crying, between the little girl being taken and new revelations about her birth mother she felt shattered. Was her mother a Chosen? Why had she refused to go with the faeries? She hadn't wanted to know anything about Joanna Cooper, but if she didn't get answers to these questions, she knew she'd never have peace.

Ianto walked quietly behind the rest of the group. He always knew there was more to his mother's story then he had been told. But he doubted that his father would have known anything about the faeries, and his sister wasn't a Chosen or she would have been long gone. He was furious. They had taken his mother and turned her mad. And there was nothing he could do about it and no older relatives still alive to question. His mother was dead and that was the end to it.

Jack had known when he hired both Ianto and Gwen that there was something special about them. He could sense it, but couldn't identify what it was. He certainly never expected to discover that they were descended from Chosen children. But it made sense. He'd never seen anyone break through retcon faster than Gwen. And Ianto and his idactic memory, remembering everything he ever read or saw in the archives. Twentieth century humans didn't normally have those abilities.

Out loud he remarked, "You two are going to have some explaining to do when we get back to the Hub.

Owen walked ahead of the group_. _"I need a drink. Several in fact," he mumbled.

"I'll join you," Tosh said catching up to him.


	4. Chapter 4

Last part - anyone interested in a sequel?

* * *

><p>The team gathered the next day in the conference room. Jack stood at the head of the table while the others sat nervously waiting for him to speak.<p>

"We are a small team; our safety relies on our being able to trust each other completely. I never should have allowed this to happen. We are going to sit here and tell the truth about ourselves, all of us, until we are confident that there is nothing left to hide."

Tosh shifted uneasily in her seat. Jack had promised her that no one would know about her imprisonment by Unit, but maybe Owen or Ianto had done worse.

Owen volunteered to go first. He was a bit hung over, and he just wanted to get this meeting done with. The team listened patiently as he told the story about Katie and the alien that had invaded her brain.

They were shocked when he wiped a few tears from his eyes saying, "Yeah, I swore I'd never get involved with anyone again. Especially anyone who worked here."

No one missed the quick glance he gave Tosh. "I keep my distance so if one of you gets killed I will be able to go on. I can't face losing someone else I care about to aliens."

He paused as he thought about what he had just said. "Truth is, I already care too much about all of you. Despite my best efforts, you've made me give a damn about you."

He smiled at Ianto. "Even you, Tea Boy."

Tosh went next. Gwen was the only one that didn't know Tosh's story. Jack of course knew, and Owen had pieced together much of it from her medical records. Tosh had confided to Ianto during his suspension establishing the kind of bond between them that Jack hoped to forge between the whole team.

Gwen listened to Tosh explain about her mother being used to blackmail her into committing espionage against the Ministry of Defense. The rest of the team waited anxiously to see how she'd respond.

"I would have done the same thing, Tosh," Gwen said.

Owen laughed. "What? I would have," Gwen insisted. Suddenly it dawned on her why Owen was so amused. "Okay, if I knew anything about mechanical drawings, or what a sonic modulator was, I would have. I'd do anything to protect my family."

"I have no doubt that," Jack said. "So you're next then. And remember, Gwen, there'll be no more secrets between us."

Gwen realized that she had put herself into an awkward position. She really didn't want to share her story with the team, and she didn't think her parents would be happy, but the team was like a family, wasn't it? And keeping secrets never turned out well, she silently mused.

"I had the most normal childhood I can imagine. I'm an only child and maybe my parents spoiled me a bit, and they were sort of overprotective, but I thought that's how everyone's family was."

Ianto rolled his eyes disdainfully.

"Well I did," Gwen protested. "But there was a secret my parents were keeping which I only found out about when Rhys and I went to visit them at New Year's." She told them about her birth mother, her parents really being her aunt and uncle and of her birth mother's eventual disappearance.

"Do you reckon she went with the faeries?" Ianto asked with intense concern.

"I don't know," Gwen replied. "I don't think my parents looked for her all that diligently, and twenty five or thirty years ago how far would you really have to go to disappear? People do it all the time. The Cardiff police have found missing person's from as far away as Australia and as close as London. A new identity wasn't that hard to create then; there weren't electronic data bases and computers to look for missing people."

"Or she could have been taken by the faeries though I would think once your mother had you, she would no longer be considered suitable," Ianto said thinking aloud.

Jack nodded. "I agree. What does your gut tell you, Gwen?"

Gwen smiled but her heart felt heavy. "Honestly, given that she got pregnant at fourteen and seemed to be totally irresponsible when she was almost sixteen, I'd bet she ran off."

Gwen felt something tug at the back of her mind, something her mother had said. Suddenly all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

"She was pregnant! That's got to be it. My mother said she was sick every morning and fine by the afternoon. And while Mam didn't say, it sounded like she did not approve of the girls she went into town with. I'll bet my parents suspected and that's why they didn't look for her. They just washed their hands of her. Sad when you think of it."

"Or maybe she ran off with the father of the baby," Ianto interjected. At fourteen she couldn't get married, at sixteen she could have with her parent's consent."

"That makes sense," Gwen agreed, "she could have gone with her new man to my Tad's parents, told them she was pregnant and they signed the papers so they could marry. I'll bet they were relieved that it wasn't going to be their problem or reflect on them anymore. If that's so, I'm certain they never told anyone, not even my father. They both were gone by the time I was ten, so no one to ask unfortunately."

Ianto had a look of amusement on his face. "My Mam got pregnant with my sister when she was not much older than your mam and she and my Tad had to get married. They always said that Rhi was a bit premature, but I don't think anyone was really fooled. And just to keep the family tradition going, Rhi was already pregnant when she married Johnny."

Ianto continued to tell the team about his mother. All he remembered was that she had always seemed a bit strange but also wonderful to him. She told fantastical stories about faerie folk, and other ancient spirits, but she had loved both her children fiercely and had taken good care of them.

"Her face would just glow as she spoke about magical creatures and then it was like she'd be coming out of trance. She'd look around and say, 'where's the time gone. I've got to get the washing done or your Tad will have a cow.'" Ianto smiled at the memory.

Ianto recalled her disappearance for a few days when he was six or seven. His father had searched frantically for her but she was gone without a trace. She reappeared five days later completely changed. She was talking to invisible people and hearing voices and wouldn't let anyone but Ianto come near her.

"Don't you hear them Ianto, try hard and you will." Ianto shook has head. "I told her I didn't and she would start to mumble in some strange Welsh dialect that none of us could understand."

"It seemed like it went on this way forever, but as I reflect, it was probably just a couple of months. I came home from school one day and Dad and Rhiannon called me over and told me that Mam wasn't well and was in the hospital. They never would tell me what was wrong with her, but it wasn't long before the other kids began to tease me about my mam being a witch, or a mad woman."

"I couldn't tell Tad, he'd started drinking and if we upset him he'd wallop you good. He eventually lost his job and went on the dole. He started drinking even more heavily and Rhi and I were terrified of him. I think about a year later, Tad said he had heard from the hospital that Mam had died. He had her cremated and her ashes returned to her parents."

Ianto concluded his story. Rhiannon had escaped by getting married. She was under eighteen and at first their father refused to sign the papers. Even when Rhiannon had told him she was pregnant, her father had continued to refuse. Ianto remembered several shouting matches between Johnny and his tad. Finally, Mr. Jones relented and allowed them to marry on the condition that they took Ianto with them.

"My sister did the best she could. But being pregnant and stuck caring for me could not have been the fulfillment of any newlywed's dream. I left a little after I turned sixteen."

Jack's senses were on full alert. He could tell that there was something else. Something Ianto didn't want to reveal. "Why did you leave your sister's home?"

Ianto thought about what he was going to say next. He had never told anyone what had happened. It wasn't related to the faeries, but he reckoned that this was his one chance to just get it out in the open. That way he could never be accused of holding back from the team. "I got caught with a boy, you know, uh, fooling around. My sister and especially Johnny were not best pleased."

"I'm guessing that's the understatement of the century," Owen snarked.

"So you heard the shouting all the way in London, did you?" Ianto countered.

Jack smiled but inside he couldn't help but thinking about how much unnecessary grief humans of this time made for themselves with all the quaint little categories they created for their relationships. "But what about your mother, Ianto? Did you ever learn what was the matter with her?"

"Even a junior archivist at Torchwood One had some pretty amazing access to public records. She had been hospitalized at Providence Park and diagnosed with schizophrenia. The official records said that she had committed suicide through asphyxiation. I dug deeper and found out the details but until this week I didn't know the significance of them. She had been particularly happy the day of her death. Told everyone that her friends were coming to get her. She was found dead the next morning….her mouth stuffed with rose petals."

As astounding as Jack's story was, after Ianto's revelation it was almost a bit anti-climactic. He didn't tell them everything of course, but by the end of the conversation they knew that he was from the fifty-first century, couldn't stay dead (though he didn't know why), and that he was 'stuck' on twenty-first century earth.

When Gwen tried to ask him about his family, he dodged the issue. "I had parents and a brother. Not a tentacle on any of them," he said smiling.

"Not much else to tell, Gwen, left home at sixteen to seek my fame and fortune and ended up stranded in Cardiff in the mid-nineteenth century."

"_Well that explains a lot,"_ Tosh thought. _"Except for..."_…"How did you get here, did you fall through the rift?"

Jack pointed to his vortex manipulator. "I can use this to travel through time, but it's broken now. So you are all just stuck with me for the time being." He wisely omitted anything about traveling with the Doctor or working for the Time Agency,

"But wouldn't travel through time risk creating a paradox or possibly changing the time line?" Ianto asked.

"In the future a small group of people will be allowed to travel through time under very strict conditions. Unfortunately that's all I can say, otherwise there really is a risk of creating a paradox."

No matter how they pressed him, Jack wouldn't reveal any additional information about his past.

Owen was clearly annoyed by this. "Oi, you said no secrets, but I guess that doesn't apply to you. We come here and spill our guts and you just give us a few facts about yourself and that's supposed to be okay?"

Before Jack could answer, Ianto jumped in. "It's probably better if he doesn't. Changing the time line is a serious business. Naturally we wouldn't know if it happened, but I'd suggest if you don't want to wake up tomorrow and find yourself living on an Earth that's been subjugated by aliens, that you leave it alone."

"Speaking of aliens, you," Owen said pointing at Jack, "are getting a full DNA screening done when we're finished here. If there's anything different about you, I have to know so I can treat any injuries properly."

Jack smiled. "As far as I know I'm one hundred percent human, but I imagine there'll have been some small genetic mutations that have occurred over the millennia…._most of which your equipment won't be able to identify, thankfully." _

"And you two," Owen said nodding at Ianto and Gwen, "are also getting screened. We'll see just what 'having the blood of the Chosen' really means.

Owen was disappointed when the genetic profiles of his teammates failed to reveal anything unexpected. His briefing a few days later was a bit of a let down for the team as well.

"We'll do Harkness first," Owen said as he shuffled the papers he was holding. Looking at Jack he continued. "I'm a bit surprised to say that you are almost certainly one hundred percent human. There are some very subtle changes on two chromosomes, but our technology, even our gene sequencer from the thirtieth century, doesn't explain what they are. Might be due to some type of genetic drift in the human population as they spread out into space, or even a founder effect if the population that settled your planet or the planet they came from had a limited gene pool."

Jack shrugged. "No idea, but your hypothesis seems reasonable."

Jack was pretty sure that one of the changes was due to a vaccine given to his many great grandparents to protect against the Draconian plague that swept through the Andromeda Galaxy in the late fortieth century. It was the first vaccine that not only conferred immunity through changes in the recipient's DNA, but also changed the structure of mitochondrial DNA so that the immunity would be passed on to the descendants of inoculated women.

It had taken twenty years to develop the vaccine, in the meantime over fifty million humans died. By Jack's own time, it was considered as crude as Dr. Jenner injecting cowpox infection into patients in order to avoid smallpox. Knowledge of this vaccine would change future history irreparably. The Time Agency's first rule of information dispersion was ingrained in him; never, ever, reveal anything that could alter the life or death of whole populations. Some secrets were meant to be kept.

Owen waited to see if Jack had anything to add and when it was obvious that Jack wasn't going to add anything to his short statement, he continued with his report.

"Right, so Gwen and Ianto," he said smiling. "Your blood is perfectly ordinary. You are both blood type O-positive which is the most common in Wales. Interestingly enough your genetic screens showed that you both have an unusual mitochondrial DNA profile. Now this doesn't tell you how closely you are related or anything like that, but just that you are descended from a common female relative about two thousand years ago. Only a small group of Welsh, probably about 2% have this profile. Its most commonly found in populations around Italy, and tends to decrease as you move further away from there so geneticists think it's a remnant of Roman soldiers who were in Britain in the first centuries of the Common Era.

Gwen snickered. "Oi Cousin Ianto, going to join us at the next family reunion?"

Ianto grinned. "I believe you should be addressing me as Tiberius Flavius Iantius, though I'll settle for Caesar, if you'd prefer."

As Gwen started to retort, Owen interrupted. "Hang on, not done. Your Y-chromosomal DNA, which comes from the father's lineage, also shows that you are related. From the analysis I've completed I can say with complete certainty that the closest relation you share is not thousands of years ago, but within the last twenty generations. So somewhere in the last three hundred to five hundred years, you share at least one male ancestor."

Both Ianto and Gwen burst out laughing. "I think that probably includes just about everybody whose family is pure Welsh today," Gwen said rolling her eyes.

"Oi! Gwen do you know what that means?" Ianto said trying to stop laughing.

"We're both related to Banana Boat," she replied. Ianto burst out laughing again and while no one else at the table had any idea what they were talking about the laughter proved to be contagious.

"What's this all …" Tosh started to ask but was laughing so hard she couldn't finish the sentence.

"Banana Boat, is that a person? Your kidding," Jack said as he tried to catch his breath.

"He's…Rhys…friend…._snrk_…a…total…_hehehe_…git," Ianto barely managed to say.

Jack looked at the group sternly. "Well if were finished here…"

He never got to finish as the group broke into laughter again.

Finally, Owen stood up. He had a somber look on his face. "Oi, you Welsh are daft, every last one of you." He turned around and walked out of the conference room.

The group looked shocked. Then they heard Owen as he walked away. "Hee hee hee, Banana Boat, that's a good one."

As the team burst into laughter one last time, Jack realized that this had been the perfect team bonding experience.

In the weeks and months that followed, Jack noticed that the team had grown much closer. Making them reveal their secrets had allowed them all to stop worrying about being judged by their team mates. They got along so well that by consensus they had made Wednesday nights, rift activity allowing, pub quiz night with Rhys and the infamous Banana Boat joining them. Jack would allow himself to be dragged along occasionally, but mostly he was content to hear about their evening out at breakfast the following day.

He smiled as they sat around the conference room telling Jack about their collective brilliance in winning their fourth quiz night in a row. This was exactly what he had hoped for. So what if he hadn't told them everything about himself, they seemed more confident in his authority since he confided that he was from the future.

His thoughts were interrupted as Owen began to tease Tosh. "Oi, did I hear correctly that you went over to Banana Boat's flat last Sunday? Did you get an up close and personal look at his...uh…banana?"

Tosh rolled her eyes at Owen's crudeness. "You know very well that I went over to help him with some computer problems he was having. He must have had a half a dozen viruses on his hard drive. I've never seen anyone who is less careful about downloading." She waited just a moment. "And besides, a lady never kisses and tells," she added slyly.

The rest of the team pretended to be shocked.

"_Routing Skype through half a dozen proxy servers isn't all that hard, but fortunately Banana Boat isn't bright enough to ask too many questions. I sent him out to get us dinner, and while he was gone I contacted my mother. I reckon he'll be having problems with his computer at fairly regular intervals until my five year parole is up."_

"Look at her face she's thinking about him," Ianto said nodding at Tosh. Tosh was startled out of her musing, looked up and blushed. "Yeah, Owen, you're right, she's definitely sweet on him." Ianto shook his head. Tosh and Banana Boat, he would have never have thought about them hitting it off.

"Okay, kids, I think we've covered all the important developments of the last few days," Jack said effectively putting an end to breakfast.

Gwen and Tosh headed back to their work stations while Owen and Jack headed over to the medical bay. Ianto went down to the archives as he usually did on quiet mornings.

"I was poking around a bit more with Gwen's and Ianto's DNA samples," Owen told Jack. "Turns out they are a bit more closely related than I first thought."

"Yeah?" Jack was very curious.

"No more than second degree relatives. That means first cousins or half-siblings."

"Well they must be cousins; they couldn't be half-siblings."

"Actually," Owen interrupted, "if you look at the time line, they could very well have the same mother. Gwen's birth mother left when Gwen was about a year old. Let's say she did get pregnant a few months before she left. I took the liberty of looking up Ianto's sister's date of birth. Her name is in his file and it wasn't hard to find her. Rhiannon Davies was born about seven months after Gwen turned one year old."

"That makes sense in some other ways. Children taken by the faeries have ranged from about seven to fifteen years of age. She had probably been told by the faeries that they were coming, but when they found out she was a mother, and worse, was pregnant again, they couldn't take her. The only question is why they returned ten years later and destroyed her mental capabilities."

The two men spoke some more but couldn't agree on a reason for the faeries taking revenge so many years later. They did agree on one thing; that Owen would destroy the test results and neither of them would ever say anything to Gwen or Ianto.

"It could throw off the whole balance of the team," Jack worried.

"Not to mention how insufferable Gwen would be in trying to protect her little brother," Owen added. "Ianto would go bonkers if Gwen tried to make him one of the family."

"Some secrets are best kept that way," Jack concluded.

Back her desk, Gwen was looking through bridal magazines. She wondered if she would ever get the nerve to ask Ianto to take a look of some photographs that her mother had sent her of Joanna. Gwen had been startled to see that she really didn't have much resemblance to her birth mother. She knew she looked a lot like her father and his mother, but she never imagined that her father and aunt (or was that uncle and mother) would look so different. Her mother's face was a bit rounder than her own and she had light brown hair and blue-grey eyes.

It was Joanna's eyes that first made her think that she and Ianto were more closely related than Owen had speculated. They were exactly the same color as Ianto's. She chided herself at the time realizing that lots of people probably had similar eyes. But her curiosity got the best of her and she started looking for images of Ianto's family. She couldn't find any of his mother, but an image of his sister from her primary school graduation made her gasp. Except for her brown eyes, Rhiannon was nearly a twin to Joanna at the same age.

As much as she wanted to ask him, something told her not to pursue this, not yet at least. She had a wedding to plan, and she had to think about her parents' feelings as well as Ianto and his sister's._ "No, some things are best left alone,"_she said reinforcing her original conclusion. She turned the page of the bridal magazine to see the most hideous mother-of-the-bride dress she had ever seen. Light peach chiffon dress with large purple tulips the size of her head, it was ghastly. Gwen snorted. Her mother was much too fashionable to be caught dead in something like that.

"Oi, Tosh, come here, I think I found the perfect dress for Mother Williams."

Down in the archives, Ianto smiled as he switched off the audio feed. He had planted nearly microscopic listening devices all over the Hub when he was hiding Lisa in the basement. That way he always knew when the Team was coming back in or were looking for him so he never got caught by surprise. He had never removed them; the team didn't like to bother him and this way he could appear at just the right moment with coffee or a helpful word or anything else they needed. Owen had told him more than once that his turning up unexpectedly at just the right time was more than a little creepy.

Nothing that Jack and Owen discussed surprised him. He had worked out the time-line the evening after they shared their secrets months ago. He was able to locate an old school picture of Johanna Cooper and she was the spitting image of Rhiannon. And he had heard other relatives remark on how much his sister resembled his Mam.

He really didn't want to intrude at this time into Gwen's family life, it sounded like there was plenty of drama without a long lost half sibling showing up. Though maybe, he thought it was time to see if his relationship with his sister couldn't be repaired.

He could talk to her about this… _"I must be daft, she can't handle my life, how would she handle being told her mother was a Chosen One by the faeries and they're what made Mam go mad."_

No some things really were better left alone. Nothing to be gained by this other than making his life more complicated.

Back in the medical bay, Owen finished up deleting the files from the memory stick he had stored them on. He might not be a computer genius like Tosh and Ianto but he was smart enough to realize that Ianto's ability to predict what they needed had to be due to something tangible. And if Tosh, having swept the Hub numerous times for any bugs and Mainframe for any unauthorized back doors, had found nothing, than Jones was a sneakier bastard than anyone knew.

He printed out one small file before he deleted it from the memory stick. Maybe some day it would be time to tell Ianto, and maybe Gwen too. But not now. Not when Ianto finally seemed to be moving on from Lisa and Canary Wharf. And Gwen was starting a new life with Rhys, a wanker in Owen's opinion, but still, it would turn her world upside down.

For now, he would have to be the keeper of the most shocking secret of all. Johanna Cooper later known as Nerys Jones wasn't dead. She was alive and well and living in London.


End file.
